Training Days

So I have survived two days of teacher training. Two down, one to go. All in all, things are going well. The teachers are participating in discussion and seem interested in learning. Im not sure how affective my teaching is. Im good with 5 year olds, but adults are not my forte. Some times I wonder why God ever thought I could manage this. I can’t tell you how many times I pray that God will teach these teachers what they need to know in spite of me.

It is extremely difficult to tell these teachers what they need in their classrooms when we don’t have all of the materials they need. It’s also extremely hard to describe good teaching to people who have probably never seen it. They seem to understand what Im talking about, but Im not sure how these concepts will affect their classrooms. My next big job is to figure out specific skills the teachers need to work on and plan lessons I can teach in their classes to model the skills they need.

Im still having a bit of culture shock. Im coming from a school where all the teachers understood good teaching techniques. They have seen them, practiced them, and have a curriculum that is used as a jumping point rather than a 'bible.' Now Im in a school where the teachers know very little about teaching techniques. They have not seen them or practiced them and they need a curriculum that is all inclusive with lots of 'meat.' I come from a world that has more 'stuff' than we could ever use in our classrooms. And Im now in a world that doesn’t have enough and wouldn’t know what to do with it if they had it.

Im going shopping tomorrow. I can provide 'stuff' for these teachers. And I can provide what knowledge I have. But there seems to be a missing component and I don’t know what it is. Pray that 'stuff' plus training will equal a dramatic change in the quality of teaching. And pray that stuff plus training plus God equals a miracle.